Thursday, 28 December 2017

The NYPD has suspended two cops for apparently failing to respond to a Brooklyn mother’s 911 call in the hours before she was found dead, police sources said Thursday.The officers were identified as Wing Hong Lau and Wael Jaber, both 11-year veterans.The department’s Internal Affairs Bureau will be reviewing every step of the officers’ response to Tonie Wells’ address in Crown Heights, an NYPD spokesman said.

An artisan who was simply identified Andrew Koku has revealed why he killed his six months old baby, Precious Koku, on Christmas Eve.Andrew, who resides at Ayedere community in Obada area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, said he intentionally murdered the baby to free him from an anticipated burden of caring for the neonate, should the mother flee the matrimonial home to meet her ex – husband.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Thursday visited the injured Yusuf Buhari, son of President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Cedarrest Hospital in Abuja.Several other top government officials including the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, have also visited the highly secured hospital to greet the boy who was involved in a bike accident on Tuesday night.

Sevilla have reached an agreement with Vincenzo Montella to become their new coach on a contract until June 2019.Montella will succeed Eduardo Berizzo, who was dismissed after just six months in charge at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium last week after the team’s poor run of form.

Turkish missions in the United States will resume full visa services for US citizens, Ankara’s embassy in Washington said Thursday, matching an identical move by American consulates in Turkey.“Within the framework of the principle of reciprocity, the restrictions placed from our side on the visa regime for US citizens are being lifted simultaneously,” it said in a statement, following an announcement by the US embassy in Ankara that full visa services for Turkish citizens were being restored.

Former US President Barack Obama is the most admired man in the United States; and former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the most admired woman, according to a poll published Wednesday.Obama came out on top of the annual Gallup survey for the 10th year in a row, while Clinton, who lost last year’s presidential election to Donald Trump, was named the most admired woman for the 16th straight year.

Leicester boss Claude Puel believes Virgil van Dijk can establish himself as the best defender in world football following his record £75m move to Liverpool.Van Dijk was handed the captain’s armband by Puel last season during the Frenchman’s year-long spell in charge of Southampton.

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is happy to shatter scoring records, but believes that winning silverware with the London club would represent a more significant achievement than any personal landmark.The England international scored a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 5-2 win over Southampton to eclipse Alan Shearer’s 22-year-old record of 36 English Premier League goals in a calendar year.

Manchester United and Barcelona have been warned they could need to splash up to €200 million to buy Antoine Griezmann this summer.Atletico reported Barcelona to FIFA last week over their alleged transfer pursuit of the France star after Camp Nou director Guillermo Amor said it was possible Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu “had a meeting with Griezmann’s family”.

Premier League strugglers Swansea City appointed Carlos Carvalhal as their manager until the end of the season on Thursday.Carvalhal was sacked by second-tier Sheffield Wednesday on Christmas Eve, but Swansea surprisingly chose the Portuguese coach to replace Paul Clement, who lost his job on December 20.

Struggling French Ligue 1 outfit Angers Sporting Club de l’Ouest have reportedly set their sights on securing the services of former Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.The 35-year-old Lille keeper, who sustained a knee injury earlier in the year, returned to the field with Les Dogues’ U18s this month after seven months out of action.

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has joined other Nigerians to pray for the speedy recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari’s son, Yusuf who was involved in a power bike accident.Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Idowu Adelusi, quoted him to have prayed on his verified Twitter Handle that God will be with the President’s family at this trying time.

President Muhammadu Buhari has met with a suspended member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin.The meeting, which lasted for about two and half hours on Thursday, comes one year and four months after the lawmaker was suspended from taking part in the proceedings at the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it will recognise the effects of obsessive video gaming as a mental health disorder in 2018.The organisation, in the beta draft of its 11th international classification of diseases, includes gaming disorder in its list of mental health conditions.

I have never felt so humiliated as I did last weekend during the book presentation of ‘Loud Whispers’, a book written by Erelu Bisi Fayemi, the former first lady of Ekiti State which held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on December 3, 2017.

In the course of doing my work as a photojournalist with The Nation newspaper, I needed to capture images of the event which I was duly invited to. Looking for a vantage point during the unveiling of the book, I scurried to take images. However, to my utter consternation, I saw no other person than Kate Henshaw, who was co-mc of the event who started harassing me and other photojournalists present.

3-year old Muhaisin Awaz and Abdallah Abdulazeez, 6, have left their parents in despair after they reportedly disappeared during a Jumat service at Oniyanrin, in the Mile 12, Ketu area of Lagos State.According to Punch Metro, Abdulazeez’s mother had visited Muhaisin’s parents on Friday to inform them of her plans to travel to her hometown in Kano State.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various federal courts in the week since the company opened up about the year-old software change.The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.

The Presidency has dismissed as ‘fake news’ an online story that the President’s son, Yusuf Buhari was flown out of the country early Thursday morning following his severe head injury in a bike accident.An online media outfit, TheCable, on Thursday reported that Buhari had been flown to Germany over the head injury he sustained following a bike accident on Tuesday night.

New York-based Cameroonian novelist, Patrice Nganang will be freed from Cameroon jail and expelled from his native country to the United States, his lawyer said today.Nganang was arrested three weeks ago on charges of insulting and threatening President Paul Biya.

Hassan Abubakar, leader of the gang that abducted and killed a Portuguese, has said they killed their victim because the N600,000 offered to them for his release was considered “too small.”Members of the four-man gang, which abducted and killed the Portuguese, Mr. Jose Machada, construction engineer attached to Dangote Construction Company, were among the 30 suspects arrested for various offences such as robbery, kidnapping, cultism and cattle rustling across Kogi State.

China on Thursday waived visas for visitors from 53 countries to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei for up to six days, state media said on Thursday.People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said visitors must enter and exit from one of the six ports.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised the alarm over the distribution of fake Coartem tablets.

A Nigerian Pharmacist, Ahmed Yakasai, tweeted “The manufacturers of the anti-malaria drugs is spelt wrongly on the fake drug sachet.” The manufacturer of the fake Coartem tablet is written as NOVRTS instead of Novartis.

Not less than 10 filling stations were sealed off in different parts of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, following the enforcement by a combined team of the operatives of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and officials of the Oyo state government.

Seven were sealed off yesterday in addition to the three sealed off on Tuesday.

The filling stations sealed off were found guilty of hoarding and selling petrol above the approved pump price of N145.

The government of Benin Republic on Wednesday said its rejection of Globacom-Benin’s bid to renew its operational license had nothing to do with sanctions against the company either for violation of its regulations or dispute over new conditions imposed for the license.

ARCEP-Benin, the Benin telecommunications industry regulatory authority for electronic communications and post, said in a response to PREMIUM TIMES’ enquiries on Wednesday that the decision was informed by a disagreement over the new price for the license.

Yusuf Buhari was flown out of the country early Thursday morning following his severe head injury in a bike crash, TheCable can report. The president’s only surviving son also broke his limb in the Tuesday night accident.As previously reported by TheCable, he is being flown to Germany for specialist care.

Aderinokun, the husband of OAP Stephanie Coker and his co-accused, Niyi Balogun, are still languishing in Kirikiri prison over their inability to meet their bail conditions and are likely to remain there until the next adjourned date of February 21 2018. .The Lagos State Government, had on the 20th of December, 2017, arraigned Olumide Aderinokun and Balogun Adeniyi Abdul-Wakil over alleged conspiracy, forgery, stealing and property fraud on parcels of land in Lekki Peninsula.

The Katsina state police has arrested a 50-years-old man, identified as Sufiyanu Kamala for impregnating a mad woman in the state.

Kamala of Saniyar Jino village in Kankara local government area of Katsina State, was said to have lured the 25-years-old woman into his farmland where he had series of carnal knowledge of her, leading to pregnancy.

A pregnant mom was found dead Wednesday at the bottom of a basement staircase inside her Brooklyn home – and cops suspect her husband strangled her.Tonie Wells, 22, was found dead with bruising to her neck following the 9:50 a.m. incident at the Crown Heights residence on Sterling Place after neighbors reportedly heard the cries of her two-year-old daughter and called the cops.

More than a dozen suspects who came before a Vietnamese court on Wednesday, December 27, were charged with “terrorism opposing the people’s administration” and sentenced for their alleged participation in a plan to blow up the country's biggest airport.

In all, 15 were detained in connection with the foiled plot, which saw security personnel at Tan Son Nhat airport in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh rush to deplane passengers on an aircraft carrying the explosives. Prior to the discovery being confirmed, several of those seated on the airplane became nervous about the nature of some boxes that were eventually found to have been stocked with the weapons.

The UN General Assembly has approved nearly 5.4 billion dollars programme budget for the UN operations in the year 2018 to 2019.

The budget covers UN activities across a range of areas, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional cooperation for development, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and public information.

A 14-year-old girl raped and impregnated by a septuagenarian ex-soldier, Mr. Shuaibu Ahmed, 70, has revealed that he gave her N100 the first time he raped her, but that she continued to allow the old man sleep with her because he threatened to kill her.According to Vanguard, Ahmed and the victim are neighbours at Ago Tapa area of Ibadan, Oyo State. According to information gathered, the man is said to have taken advantage of many other under-aged girls in the neighbourhood.

The Nigeria Police Force is planning to launch a radio by 2018. This is to allow a direct communication between the force and the public. They also believe that it will help the police in getting accurate infromation on time.Wesley Edirin, the chairman of Nigeria Police Broadcasting Service, Edirin Wesley announced this on in Abuja. He said Nigerians can report any type of crime live on the Radio Broadcast.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to tell Nigerians the truth regarding the handling of fuel-related funds, particularly reports of 18 unregistered companies allegedly used to lift and divert $1.1 trillion worth of crude oil in the last one year.

The party also alleged that the Federal Government was providing cover for “huge sleazes directly involving APC interests” in the ongoing fuel crisis in the country.

A glamorous Russian TV presenter was shot dead by her estranged husband in front of her nine-year-old son as part of a bitter custody row, according to police. Zhanna Veber, 29, was reportedly shot at close range by Anatoly Leontikov, 36, with a supposedly “non-lethal” pneumatic weapon, according to police.

The United States on Wednesday reiterated its continued support for Nigeria’s military campaign against the Boko Haram. The nation’s fight against the insurgents has seen the decimation of the North East and a recent approval for the withdrawal of $1bn from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for the sole purpose of executing the war.

The US ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, gave assurances that the US would not falter in its support. He said this as he presented the Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, in respect of the A29 Super Tucano Aircraft to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola insisted the Premier League leaders were never interested in signing Liverpool-bound defender Virgil van Dijk.Van Dijk, 26, is set to head to Anfield from Southampton in January after the clubs agreed a deal reportedly worth £75 million.

It would have been a sad moment for the family and friends of a man identified as Godswill Leeleebari Gabriel, who cheated death after a truck failed brake and ran into his shop - crushing everything in its path. The sad incident happened today, December 27. According to Godswill, everything in his shop was crushed by the truck except him.